It's said ‘death and taxes' are the two certainties in life but for the Mercury Bay Aero Club there's a third: bird strikes.

Earlier this week Whitianga locals would have heard shotgun blasts coming from around the airfield as part of the club's efforts to scare away Paradise ducks and Canada geese in the area.

On Wednesday evening an authorised local hunter, on behalf of the Mercury Bay Aero Club, undertook a cull of the Canadian geese flocking around the Whitianga Airfield currently. Photo: Claire Rogers

Wednesday evening's cull focussed on Canada geese; an introduced species not protected under New Zealand's Wildlife Act and can be hunted without a game license.

While Paradise ducks cause the most issues for the Whitianga Airfield and are a long-term problem, they were not targeted in the cull as the duck hunting season begins in May.

Aero Club president Bill Beard says it was performed by a local hunter authorised by Fish and Game NZ to undertake culls on behalf of the club and Westpac Rescue Helicopter Trust.

'We don't like shooting birds,” says Bill, 'firstly we try to scare them off using non-lethal disturbance methods but when they fail we just have to give them a real scare.

'They mainly settle early in the day, they just sit on the runway and of course we've recently cut the hay and that attracts the birds too.”

Bill adds: 'It's purely from a safety point of view, heavy birds and planes don't mix very well and the best thing to bring down an aeroplane these days is a big duck.

'Sometimes we can have up to 50 birds sitting on the airfield, when aeroplanes are coming in to land it is scary because you don't know which directions they are going to go.”

Along with light aircrafts and commercial flights, Bill is also deeply worried by the birds' presence around the airfield because it is often used as a landing pad for the Westpac Rescue Helicopter.

He says at this time of year there are a lot of bird strikes, especially involving Canada geese as they are a migratory bird and can be seen around Whitianga 'for a month or so”.

But before any bird is targeted by hunters the aero club will undertake a number of non-lethal methods to drive the birds off of the airfield.

'We drive our vehicles on the runway tooting our horns, thinking that if you do it enough times they just get pissed off and move on. But they just fly over to the waterways and are back the next day.

'It's always been a problem for the airfield, because there's so much standing water around us it just attracts these birds.”

Bill says if they do have to resort to culls, there are a lot of conditions that must be adhered to and can only be undertaken once non-lethal measures have been exhausted.

Conditions include a period of up to three weeks in which the culls can be conducted, hunters must not use decoys or calls to draw the birds in, and a comprehensive report must be filed with Fish & Game.

This report covers the extent of methods taken before the cull and the number of birds killed.

Fish & Game Auckland/Waikato chief executive Ben Wilson says while he appreciates that some people would not like the idea of shotguns being used during culls they were the most effective.

'It's the most effective method in that it's targeted,” says Ben. 'If you use methods such as poisoning, it's less targeted and there's huge potential for contamination and other spieces inadvertently being killed.

'At least when you're using a shotgun you know what you're taking out and they have a fairly limited lethal range of within 100m.”

SunLive has spoken to members of the Whitianga community who work with injured wildlife but all wished to remain anonymous.

The majority agreed the issue was ‘problematic', not only because the birds caused safety concerns but conservation issues were also at play.

Both Canada geese and Paradise ducks are notorious for eating vast quantities of paddock grass, crops and pastures, plus are known for fouling waterways.

But while these birds cause a variety of problems, each person spoken to by SunLive wished for a more effective, non-lethal method, with one saying; "If an injured Canada goose came in I would still help it.”

Canada geese. Photo: File